Gay Group Leaders To Assist Republicans Running For DC Council

By
Carlos Santoscoy
Published:
March 23, 2010

GOProud leaders will assist in the
campaigns of two openly gay Republicans competing for DC Council ward
seats in this year's election.

GOP leaders announced Thursday that the
party will field 4 candidates in the Democratic stronghold of the
District of Columbia. No Republicans currently sit on the 13-member
council.

The inclusion of two candidates who
happen to be both gay and Republican is certain to rattle prevailing
assumptions of openly gay candidates. And leaders of gay Republican
group GOProud say they'll help in getting their candidates elected.

Marc
Morgan, 37, a gay black Republican, plans to run for the Ward 1
seat currently held by Council Member Jim Graham, who is also gay.
Morgan and Graham will face each other if Graham wins the Democratic
primary.

“I think they would see I am not like
any Republican out there,” Morgan told the Washington Post.
“I am extremely moderate. I am a pro-environment Republican.”

Timothy
Day, who is an Advisory Neighborhood Commission member, hopes to
best incumbent Harry Thomas, a Democrat, in a fight for his Ward 5
seat, should Thomas win his primary. Day is also African-American
and gay.

Gay Republican group GOProud
won't campaign for the candidates but its leaders plan to lend a
hand.

Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of
GOProud, told On Top Magazine that his group only supports
federal candidates and issues, but added that several GOProud leaders
who reside in the District, including himself, are planning to
volunteer for the campaigns of the candidates.

LaSalvia said the District is
“desperate” for Republican leadership.

“Years of failed liberal policies
have left the residents of the District frustrated, mad and ready for
change,” he said. “DC is ready – even desperate – for
Republicans gay or straight.”

The inclusion of gay candidates on the
Republican slate for DC Council did not surprise LaSalvia who said
the candidates are “reflective of the city.”

“Most people know that there is a
large gay community in our nation's capital,” he said, “so it's
not surprising that the leadership and candidate of both political
parties include gay and lesbian leaders.”

But whether DC voters accustomed to
thinking of the Democratic Party as the party of inclusion will take
a serious look at the gay Republicans remains to be seen.